Job Discussion Forums

[Sashadroogie]

Don't want to seem to be defending a Big School, but, actually, it is not that strange to insist on filling out registers. And without a financial consequence, the sad truth is that lots of teachers simply write stuff like 'chatted about weekend' in the lesson content of their registers, or 'did a listening, p 42'. (how does one 'do' a listening? How does one 'do' p 42?) Really gives no indication of what they are teaching during lessons. This is next to worthless to a DOS when, say, a student complains about a teacher's lack of preparation or about his lack of lexical work etc. This is a secondary and often over-looked purpose of a register: to protect a teacher (and a school) from these claims by showing that the lessons did indeed comprise vocabulary input etc., over a given period. But if there is no written record, who is to say what's true.

Also, as teachers, we should be aware of the balance of different types of lessons over an extended course, and glancing back over the previous few weeks' register entries is vital for this. E.g. how many lessons included a Writing skills focus, or Pron? Without adequate lesson records it is hard not to just plan from lesson to lesson and next to impossible to keep an overview.

We all know that every individual lesson, should have a clear aim - well, write that aim in the register, with basic details re materials used. Not so hard, is it? I mean, technically, we are supposed to write a lesson plan for each lesson too. The register is a cake-walk by comparison.

[Kootvela]

Sadly, I agree with you to a great extent. The fact that the school has to protect their staff from client accusation is very much alive in Lithuania as well. But when the register prevents from being paid for the worl already done, is a different situation.

[mdk]

[Sashadroogie]

"Work already done" - this should include basic register filling out. If the register is left blank, as is often the case, then one cannot expect payment for just turning up to the class and 'being there'. Got to provide the documentation. Annoying, perhaps, a pain in the neck, maybe, but that's why it's called work. And that is why it is spelled out in a contract, such as the OP complained about. We are contractually obliged to fill these documents out. If we do not, a school is perfectly entitled to withhold payment until we do so. Note, that is withhold, not deduct payment. You will be paid as soon as you do what you really should be doing anyway. Personally, I have no issue with this.

But maybe I am in the minority position. Let's see what other posters think.

[BELS]

I think the other posters who have a negative attitude in joining this school. As for you, you are probably an employee of this school, therefore you have to accept it.

[hughesie]

[Sashadroogie]

BELS, sorry, I didn't quite catch what you meant, but I am not an employee of BKC. I was once, as were lots of teachers in Moscow at some point or other.

Hughesie, of course you have never advocated leaving a register blank. I wouldn't have expected anyone to do so.However, this is (or at least was) a major problem for the school, BKC, because lots of teachers ( who are mainly first time recruits and do not know a lot about teaching generally) do indeed leave the whole thing unfilled: attendance, dates, work covered, the lot. Some teachers try to fill out the previous 2 or 4 weeks' info the day before pay-day and try to rely on an imperfect memory. In a school like BKC, which is huge, with over 150 teachers running around from different locations, the Administration and Senior Teachers simply cannot monitor all the teachers' registers, in all the different schools all the time. This is why they have put this clause re filling out in the contract. I may be wrong here, but I believe that this clause was added to the contract at the behest of the Senior Academic staff themselves, and not the Russian side of the company, so there is no desire for economic gain on the part of the school at play here.

Directly linking a teacher's salary to his fulfillment of administrative duties and withholding payment till done so is, unfortunately, the only way that works. It may appear harsh to some, but it is preferable to being asked to cover (as frequently happens in BKC) a class in a distant location with completely inaccurate or incomplete lesson details, because the sick teacher didn't fill out anything. Basic details are as I posted previously, and these are the details a cover teacher needs to have too. I am not sure what other posters consider to be a normal level of detail, but what is in the contract seems about right to me. Though I see others differ.

Incidentally, I do not think this contract clause was ever a problem for teachers working for BKC, I have heard of next to no cases where a salary was actually withheld. So we are really discussing an abstraction. There are, however, very real other reasons to stay away from schools like this. The register policy is not one of them, I think, and in fact is quite standard in lots of schools in various countries.

[canucktechie]

The salary rule was brought in because other efforts to get teachers to complete their registers had been ineffective.

As noted above he rule was brought in to protect other teachers and the students. If the regular teacher has not noted the details of previous classes, a substitute teacher cannot properly prepare for the lesson and this is both stressful for the teacher and unfair to the students. Of course it is also damaging to the school due to the students being unhappy and loss of morale among more conscientious teachers.

I should note that there is no "fine" for not completing the register, it's just that completion of the register is a condition of getting paid. You still get your salary - when you complete it. As far as I know they don't have any fines at all for teaching issues (trashing your apartment is a different issue), but of course like any employer they do retain the right to sack you for unsatisfactory performance, and indeed that may be exercised somewhat arbitrarily, like everything else in Russia.

[BELS]

Do they allocate paid time for filling in forms, marking, and making plans for lesson etc. If they do , then I suppose it's ok, and the teacher is obligated to do such work. No excuses.

[maruss]

That's right BELS, they give you a split schedule for teaching lessons and when you complain that you have a long break during the day which cannot be used to go home and relax etc. they tell you its for doing your admin work and lesson planning etc!Nice work-effectively around 15 hours per day for a 'fistful of dollars!!'I know people who left home at 06.00 to be at in-company lessons by 08.00 and were coming home around 22.00 and in the middle of winter!Perhaps that's how they justify their low wages by making sure you never have any time-or energy-to go out and spend any!

[BELS]

It looks like you have summarised this thread, and it's not the first time that a thread has come to the same conclusion as this thread. Too much time and energy lost and wasted, and no time time to go out and enjoy yourself or relax. And when you can, do you have enough money to enjoy yourselves, or have spent it it all on necessities, and have to sit in a grubby tiny flat shared with a stranger you might not like Yes that's the adventure of coming to Moscow in TEFL.

[maruss]

We really need to appoint BELS as the ambassador for change in E.F.L. teaching in Russia but will he accept?I doubt it!

[mdk]

I have been reading these complaints about the hard life of EFL teachers in general and at BKC in particular with some sardonic feelings.

My Russian girl friend worked about as hard as most Russian women, I think. That is to say she worked hours that would have made a westerner lay sobbing on the rocks. Then she would come home and be surprised that I had cooked dinner for her. Then she would start doing housework.

In Spring, once the snow was off the ground, she would be out with her parents putting in about a quarter acre of potatoes and veggies. This was after I offered to give her $300 ( enough to buy all the tatters she and her folks could eat in a year ) She refused - saying I just didn't understand Russians.

She was right, I still don't - but I don't understand people who go to Russia just to bellyache about their hard times either. Aww! Diddums have to wait around the school (on Tverskaya probably no less!) for most of the day because of the cruel taskmaster's split schedule? And did they get docked for screwing up the class register to boot? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

Kak Uzzhastnye zizhhn! Bozhemoi!

[BELS]

Perhaps they bellyache in the hope that things might get better for them in the future, and perhaps get treated like any other western professional expat would expect here, and to be treated with that due respect.

I have a Russian wife, and she would expect a lot more than such EFL schools offer, as she would say, you can't keep a family on such packages.

Thankfully we can do it on our own, we don't need to depend on any schools offer of employments.

[hughesie]